


May I Have This Dance?

by orphan_account



Category: Ghostbusters (2016)
Genre: And More Fluff, Dancing, F/F, Fluff, Lots of dancing, not even sorry
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-10-18
Updated: 2016-10-18
Packaged: 2018-08-23 02:55:11
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,626
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8311153
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: Headcanon that Holtzmann has a lot of fun toying with dress codes to mess with snobbish people at formal events. (Based off of the Tumblr post by Maryne (ps: you rock!))





	

**Author's Note:**

  * For [MufasaTheChill](https://archiveofourown.org/users/MufasaTheChill/gifts).



> Tumblr post can be found here: http://toodrunktofindaurl.tumblr.com/post/150142832756/headcanon-that-holtzmann-have-a-lot-of-fun-toying
> 
> Enjoy!
> 
> DISCLAIMER: I OWN NOTHING!!

“Holtzmann, for the last time, no you _cannot_ wear that – this is _black-tie_ and the Mayor’s still not over the last stunt you pulled!” Abby snapped as Patty sniggered in the background, snapping photos from behind Abby’s back of Holtzmann, standing on the first floor with the rest of the team who were prepared for the gala that evening.

 

“Is it the monocle?” Holtzmann asked, seriously as Abby fought to not hit her friend upside the head for the goofy looking amber-lensed monocle that Holtzmann must have made herself and had pressed against her left eye with a cheesy grin.

 

Other than the offending piece of eyewear, what she wore on her body wasn’t that far of a stretch from her usual style; a clean, pressed pair of earth-brown slacks and a matching vest, surprisingly shined white-and-brown Oxfords with – _gasp_ – matching _laces_ and a pinstriped shirt paired with a loud, yet suitable red bowtie.

 

“Holtzy baby, c’mon, we’re gonna be late, you have a suit this time, don’t you?” Patty finally spoke up, trying to ease Abby’s frayed nerves before the shorter woman had a stroke.

 

Holtzmann shrugged nonchalant, the monocle falling from her eye and dangling off of her ear by its chain.

 

Patty marched a pouting Holtzmann upstairs to the third floor where their suited living quarters were, to make sure she got her outfit on before the limousine got to the Firehouse and Erin pulled Abby over to the couch and offered her Abby’s stash from beneath the kitchen sink; a flask that held an unknown concoction of Abby’s own creation that even Patty spit out after taking a small taste once to figure it out – _“My uncle used to make_ moonshine _, ain’t nothin’ Abby got in that thing that I can’t handle!”_ – Abby took a healthy swig and grimaced as it went down before screwing the cap back on and instead of giving it back to Erin, stashed between her bosom and the lace of her eggshell evening gown.

 

“Thanks,” Abby sighed and Erin sat next to her. Both women were already dressed in their formal wear that the Mayor and Ms. Lynch had made certain to always send them so as to avoid incidents like the _first_ event the Ghostbusters got invited to after the Rowan incident last year.

 

Holtzmann had of course, decided to show up after the fact, claiming that she had unstable equipment that needed to be completed before she could party, so the three women – plus Kevin – took heed and headed to the event without her.

 

Nearly an hour-and-a-half later they were pulled aside by Ms. Lynch who looked furious and demanded an explanation for Holtzmann’s choice in evening wear;

 

The tuxedo she’d donned was indeed a _monstrosity,_ made of some clearly out-of-date burgundy velvet, paired with an 80’s ruffled prom shirt beneath. She wore her usual round yellow glasses and everyone, even Patty was alarmed by the long-stemmed Hepburn- _esque_ cigarette holder dangling from her mouth with a lit cigarette at the end of the odd prop.

 

After the fact, she swore she didn’t actually inhale any of it but wound up losing her voice by the end of the week simply from the contact of the toxic smoke.

 

“Sup, Mr. Mayor?”

 

Abby nearly fainted as Holtzmann approached the Mayor, in the midst of a conversation with some Chancellor. Erin turned the color of Holtzmann’s awful outfit and Patty laughed so hard she nearly peed herself, snapping picture after picture until Holtzmann spotted them and made her way over, causing a scene the entire way with her bizarre outfit and the trail of carcinogen in a non-smoking ballroom.

 

After that, Ms. Lynch had them each sized up for different outfits and made certain that another incident like that never happened again. But it did – _oh, did it_.

 

Two months later, Holtzmann was incredibly displeased to see that she’d been sent a dress – a beautiful red cocktail-like one at that – and nearly refused to attend because of it.

 

Once again it was up to Patty to talk Holtzmann into getting changed, yet none of them had been the wiser to Holtzmann’s plan to show up, disappear into a restroom and change out of the matching red heels she’d been luxuriously provided, into her scuffed combat boots and mismatched socks that stood out like a sore thumb the entire evening as Holtzmann made her rounds and actually attempted conversations.

 

It was a tie between who birthed the bigger cow that evening: Ms. Lynch or Abby.

 

Erin hadn’t even noticed at first, too enchanted by the sight of Holtzmann with her hair down for the first time that Erin could even remember. It had been a lovely sight to behold; natural curls falling down over Holtzmann’s shoulders, framing her face with a halo of goldenrod – Erin had been shockingly disappointed when she pulled it back up into a bun the moment they were escorted out.

 

* * *

  
 

“ _Finally_ ,” Abby sighed, standing and breaking Erin’s musings as she looked up to see Patty coming down the stairwell, followed briefly by – _whoa_.

 

Erin felt her breath catch – the red dress and hair down had been a real treat, for sure, and Erin had had a most difficult time not staring at her that evening as she tampered down her blooming crush on the quirky engineer – but _this_ was something almost surreal.

 

Holtzmann was in a tailored navy blue suit, a long tailcoat that flowed out behind her, punctuated with a white button-down shirt, a black necktie, shined, black dress shoes and a lovely red rose boutonniere. She left her hair up in its natural state of a bun with curled bangs falling from the left side of her face and traded her yellow glasses for just a minor amount of gray eyeshadow to compliment her vest.

 

“See something you like, Gilbert?” Holtzmann winked at Erin, who snapped her jaw shut as she realized it had been hanging open stupidly for the last several seconds and swallowed thickly.

 

“Y-you – uhm. _Wow,_ Holtzmann,” Erin blushed, ducking her head as she heard Patty and Abby share a snicker.

 

“See Holtzy? Even Erin can’t resist when you dress up _properly_. You two even match tonight!” Patty poked fun at Erin’s blatant crush that everyone apparently knew about except for Holtzmann( _hopefully_ ) and Erin felt her face brighten an even darker shade of red as Patty mentioned Erin’s sleeveless navy evening dress that shimmered almost silver in the faded lights of the Firehouse.

 

Her auburn hair was pulled back into an elegant bun with a few strands framing her face, dainty silver earrings dangled from each lobe, matching the silver of her necklace.

 

“You clean up mighty fine yourself, Dr. Gilbert,” Holtzmann offered Erin her crooked arm and Erin took it, grateful at the quip as Holtzmann made her feel a little less embarrassed and a lot more relaxed as they headed out to the limousine that arrived.

 

Patty enjoyed the limousine rides more than the rest of them, taking a full side seat to herself and fitting as many of the miniature liquor bottles from the mini-fridge into her clutch as she could. Abby would often bicker over the Vodka ones and Holtzmann and Erin would just watch with matching grins as the two squabbled over what channel to watch until they got to the event.

 

“I hope you’ll do me the honor of saving me a dance tonight, Gilbert,” Holtzmann muttered to Erin who hoped didn’t notice her shiver at the close proximity.

 

She could smell the mint toothpaste on Holtzmann’s breath and it took all of her power not to turn her head and taste her mouth.

 

“Well we could have danced last time had you not gotten us kicked out early – _again_ ,” Erin ribbed with a smile and Holtzmann rolled her eyes good-natured and scoffed, stretching her arms along the back of the seat and consequently, Erin’s shoulders.

 

“That party was lame anyway, tonight however I heard they’ll at least have decent hors d'oeuvres!”

 

* * *

 

The party was in full swing by the time the Ghostbusters had arrived and indeed, unlike the last few events, this one had a little bit more ‘ _umph’_ to it than the last few.

 

It was black-tie, yes, but it seemed the Mayor’s daughter had no qualms of having her father celebrate her birthday in style. The Ghostbusters had only been invited because the Mayor’s daughter was an incredibly rad law student at NYU who believed her Dad was sometimes a bit of a prick when it came to politics and she enjoyed seeing the Ghostbusters footage of the Rowan incident that her father and his PR tried to slander with talks of hallucinogens in the water supply.

 

“Oh! The Ghostbusters are here! _Now_ it’s a party!” Amanda Bradley was practically the complete opposite of her father. Despite going into law, Amanda was passionate about helping people for the right reasons and finding the truth to answers that nobody else wanted to know.

 

The most she shared with her father was genetics. She beamed at the team who came through and each of them greeted her with a hug and a high-five (Holtzmann).

 

“Thank you all _so much_ for coming, I thought this party was going to be filled with more of my Dad’s goons!” Amanda laughed, sipping at her drink. “Did you guys bring that sexy receptionist of yours?”

 

“Kev’s on holiday in Australia,” Abby answered and Amanda pouted but it was soon replaced with another bright, _genuine_ smile as a waiter came around and she made sure they each got drinks.

 

“Happy Birthday, Mandy!” Patty cheered and Holtzmann clinked her glass to the dark-haired woman who practically bounced in her heels.

 

“Thank you, _thank you_ , and might I say, you all look so lovely tonight! I’ll have to catch up with you guys though, my Dad’s eyeing me to come and make him look good – _Dads_ , amirite?” Amanda squeezed Erin’s shoulder and then Abby’s arm before heading over to where Mayor Bradley was waving at his daughter, standing beside an obviously bored politician.

 

“Well, I guess that’s my queue – I’m gonna go get me one of these fine pieces of man meat, see ya!” Patty cackled as she headed over towards a group of well-dressed men who were standing around and sipping on their whiskeys.

 

“Stay out of trouble tonight, Holtz? Please?” Abby pleaded as she eyed the buffet table.

 

“Sure,” Holtzmann nodded and Abby set off for the food and Erin stood by Holtzmann, uncertainly twisting her fingers and looking around the ballroom, taking in the view of the fine crystal chandelier and the lovely dresses and allowing the scent of hot turkey and vegetables to fill her nose.

 

“Dr. Holtzmann, it’s nice to see you dressed properly for once,” Jennifer Lynch approached the pair and Holtzmann thrust her hands deep into her pants pockets, rocking back and forth on the balls of her feet, unresponsive.

 

“I do hope you’ll stay this way – the Mayor would be awfully disappointed to have to throw out his daughter’s invitees,” the dark-haired woman gave them that twisted smile that told them they’d better behave or else and Erin waited until she was walking away to roll her eyes.

 

“Do you want to go get something to ea-” Erin turned and stopped as she realized that Holtzmann was no longer beside her, but had wandered off to Gods-knows-where, doing possibly Gods-knows-what. “O-kay.”

 

Erin waded through the ballroom, stopping every so often when someone recognized her and would ask how the Ghostbusters were faring – and Erin was happy to reply to them with good news and even more excited that people were beginning to recognize the work that they did was genuine and real.

 

Erin got caught in the middle of a heated discussion with two other physicists who worked at Stanford, about Erin’s theories, more so out of testing her knowledge and capabilities, than frowning on her work with the paranormal. It was refreshing.

 

“Excuse us,” the man and his counterpart said as two women each came and retrieved their respective partners for a dance. Erin nodded her assent and headed to the closest table, grabbing a flute of champagne along the way.

 

Erin sat and watched as she saw Patty swing around the dance floor with some very handsome suit who was roughly four inches shorter than her and hid her smirk behind her glass at the sight. A moment passed before a tap on her shoulder had her turning in her seat, she ignored the stab of disappointment when she was faced with a stranger – a decently handsome one – but still.

 

“I was hoping if I might have this dance?” the square-jawed, tall, dark and handsome man offered his hand and Erin offered him a smile that she hoped seemed genuine before allowing him to lead her out onto the dance floor.

 

“My name’s Mark, I’m an English Professor at Rutgers, what is it that brings you to this place?” the man – Mark – tried to make small talk.

 

“Erin Gilbert, Doctor of Particle Physics, I’m also a Ghostbuster -”

 

“A what now?” Mark asked, ludicrous. He then let out an unflattering snort. “Wait, you mean you’re one of _those_ women who were a part of that mass hallucination last year?”

 

Erin was about to give this douche-canoe a piece of her mind when her saving grace came in the form of a “May I cut in?”

 

Breathing a sigh of relief, Erin gratefully paused her movements with the rude gentleman who didn’t look as pleased to see Holtzmann standing beside them.

 

“Actually-”

 

“ _Yes_ ,” Erin released Mark’s rather gross and sweaty palm and wiped it on the front of his tux, he grimaced and then his jaw slackened as she took Holtzmann’s offered hand and the blonde quickly swept her away into a twirl that led them further into the dance floor and further _away_ from the douche-canoe.

 

“Thank you, I thought I was going to have to make a scene,” Erin smiled, gratefully at her colleague who only smirked back.

 

“Sorry for allowing him the pleasure of even trying – but I had a rather interesting conversation with a woman about _voles_ ,” Holtzmann shrugged and Erin laughed at Holtzmann’s odd choice of a conversation topic as they easily fell into a sway amongst the rest of the ballroom as the band played a catchy instrumental rendition of _Hooked On a Star_.

 

Holtzmann swung Erin out, both women laughing as Erin twirled back in and then trusted Holtzmann to dip her low, low enough that the bun on her head nearly grazed the floor and she could feel her heart hammering in her chest in euphoria as she allowed Holtzmann to lead her around the room in a graceful waltz that turned into a slight tango and then slowed again as the women grew breathless with laughter.

 

“You can cut quite a rug there, Dr. Gilbert,” Holtzmann complimented, bemused as she spun Erin around again and caught her with Erin’s back pressed against her front and then led her in a salsa swerve, swaying their hips in tandem and then spinning Erin back out, who felt like she was dancing on air, lightheaded with giddiness as her heart continued to hammer against her ribcage at the nearness of Holtzmann and the spicy scent of her cologne.

 

“I have a great partner it seems – where did you learn how to dance like this?” Erin asked, genuinely impressed as they slowed their movements in time with the song coming to an end, starting up with a much slower tune.

 

Erin paused, wondering if maybe this was too intimate a dance to share with the blonde, but Holtzmann didn’t bother letting her go, nor did she seem fazed at Erin’s worry, but merely pulled Erin into her, chest to chest, and despite the height difference thanks to Erin’s heels, Holtzmann pressed her cheek to Erin’s and Erin felt her eyes drift shut as she relaxed and breathed in and out in tandem with the movement of their steps and their hearts.

 

“I had a lot of energy as a kid, sometimes even science couldn’t quell the nervous shake, so my Mom put me in dance lessons to help burn off some of that extra steam – turned out I was really good at it, too so I just kept going and even joined the dance team in high school,” Holtzmann spoke in a soft voice next to Erin’s ear and Erin couldn’t help the shiver that ran down her spine.

 

Holtzmann’s hand on her lower back tightened just briefly, but loosened again, almost by reflex as they continued to sway. The room around them seemed to just fall by the wayside and it seemed that the only thing that Erin could hear, see or smell was Holtzmann.

 

 _Shoot, I really do have it bad_ , Erin cursed internally as she tried to block out the tingling sensation that shot down her spine, directly into her nethers at the quick movement.

 

“You were on a dance team?” Erin found her voice and swallowed the lump that she blamed for the sudden higher pitch in her voice as she hoped to any deity listening that Holtzmann didn’t notice.

 

“For a single practice, before the captain of the dance team found out I slept with her sister and threw me off of the team,” Holtzmann shrugged with a smirk and Erin scoffed, jerking her head back to determine the seriousness of Holtzmann’s statement but could see the mirth gleaming in the engineer’s baby blues and rolled her eyes.

 

“You’re incorrigible,” Erin chuckled.

 

“Mm, yeah – but that’s why you love me,” Holtzmann winked and Erin felt her face flush as she ducked her head into the crook of Holtzmann’s neck, trying to avoid looking like a tomato for one evening and wondering if perhaps there were some sort of weird truth to that statement.

 

She liked Holtzmann, that was certain – but _love_? That was still a little too early to tell –

 

“I can hear you thinking, Gilbert, cut it out,” Holtzmann chortled. “You don’t have to take anything I say seriously, just know that I love you, too.”

 

Erin froze at that, looking back up at Holtzmann with that deer-in-the-headlights look that she had perfected in her undergrad years.

 

“I-I-” Erin stammered but Holtzmann just turned them around and forced Erin to stop thinking as she concentrated instead on finishing out the dance that ended merely two seconds later and the band paused to take a brief intermission and everyone around them clapped.

 

Holtzmann however, held onto Erin and Erin onto Holtz.

 

“Thank you for the dance, Dr. Gilbert,” Holtzmann released her to bow low with what was supposed to be a mocking smirk but Erin could sense the tension in her face – she’d become attuned in the past year to all things Jillian Holtzmann – and felt guilt eat at her as the smirk fell slightly when Holtzmann attempted to dismiss herself from the dance floor.

 

Erin’s reflexes however, were quicker than her brain could process as she held tight to Holtzmann’s wrist and Holtz glanced back with a raised eyebrow.

 

“Holtz – I -” Erin felt the lump return, but Holtzmann watched her, patiently.

 

The redhead cursed her brain for the first time in years for not having the proper words to form into complete sentences and instead just threw caution to the wind and stepped closer to Holtzmann, sharing the same air.

 

Holtzmann’s eyes widened at the proximity, but she didn’t make a move, she knew, or perhaps Erin thought that maybe she wanted to make sure that Erin was really going to do what she had been wanting to do for months now.

 

Erin’s eyes closed as she felt tears sting the back of her eyes in her own cowardice and she reached out for Holtzmann, choking up as she couldn’t manage to just finish what she’d started and pressed her forehead to Holtzmann’s instead, letting out a shaky breath.

 

“ _Holtz_ ,” Erin whispered, like a prayer. As if the name itself could simply justify the millions of emotions screaming at Erin from deep in the wells of her chest cavity.

 

“Erin?” Holtzmann finally spoke, her voice a lot calmer and gentler than Erin had ever heard before.

 

Erin didn’t open her eyes and took in an even louder breath – a gasp – when a hand brushed a tear from her cheek. When had she started crying? Oh no, not here – not in front of her – Erin was mortified and could feel her heart beating out erratically as she struggled not to have a panic attack.

 

“Look at me? Please?” Holtzmann requested and Erin whimpered at the soft way Holtzmann wiped her tears and then shuffled them both, possibly further away from prying eyes before Erin finally opened her glassy blues and stared at Holtzmann who looked back at her in complete awe.

 

“May I kiss you?” Holtzmann asked tenderly. Erin was pretty sure she nodded, despite the fact that her entire body seemed to be frozen in shock and then a warm, soft pair of apricot-and-mint tasting lips were on her own and her frozen demeanor softened.

 

Her knees grew weak as she leaned into the kiss and moaned, Holtzmann wrapped her into an embrace and kissed her until they both were breaking free for air, stars dancing in their vision.

 

“ _Wow_ ,” Holtzmann breathed, pressing her forehead to Erin’s with a cocky smirk, parroting Erin’s earlier sentiments and the redhead blushed, pressing onward and crashing her lips back onto Holtzmann’s for another, deeper kiss.

 

Across the room, Abby smirked as Jennifer Lynch pulled out a crisp fifty note from her clutch and slapped it into Abby’s palm with a pout.

-FIN-

**Author's Note:**

> Reviews feed my cold, dead soul.


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